I recently discovered a treasure of a site at LibriVox - a project run by volunteers that takes out-of-copyright books and gives them a free voice. All the audio recordings created by the LibriVox community are released as public-domain and are uploaded on the internet archive. There’s over 100 completed works in English, many short stories, and many works in progress.
I’ve just finished listening to Anne of Green Gables (as Fran is currently catching up on the English kids literature that she never read as a child and is enjoying this series so much that she can’t stop talking about them). It’s been a wonderful experience - having a story read to you by a group of volunteers who’ve done so just because they enjoyed the book so much and want to share it with others!
LibriVox has inspired us so much that we’re hoping to contribute back and read a few chapters from the third book in the series soon! I’ve never really gotten into podcasting, mainly because I’m one of those people who thinks “who’d want to listen to me rabbiting on about my own thoughts”. But here’s a chance to record something worthwhile… something beautiful.
You can read more about LibriVox on their own site, or there’s a Wired article about the LibriVox project as well.